For its annual Most Disruptive Undergraduate Business Schools feature, Poets&Quants sought promising startups founded by undergraduates majoring in a business-related field. One of the most important criteria is that their startup must show great potential for lasting beyond business school. For the feature, P&Q reached out to 33 of the highest-ranked business schools of 2024.
Scheller undergrad Ty C. Thompson, along with his partner, Sydney Brown, a biomedical engineering student, were selected for their company, DivineDrive, Inc.
Industry: Sports Drink Industry
Brief Description of Solution: In the search for streamlining athletic excellence as well as supplement usage, we have created an all-encompassing formula designed specifically for high impact athletes supercharging them with energy, electrolytes, muscle building supplements, and vitamins.
Funding Dollars: We have received $5,000 in funding from our startup program, CREATE-X, and further funding is being discussed.
What led you to launch this venture? A desire to serve athletes. Being one, I know the day-to-day struggles of athletes, with the back-to-back tough practices or the intense workouts. With this drink, I aimed specifically to increase the athlete’s ability to power through these tough trials, as well as reap the maximum benefits from their workouts and practices.
What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? Demo Day. It was success in every manner of the word. We had been working hard since February to accomplish the goal of having samples at the event and we just barely squeezed them out. We had the president of Georgia Tech, as well as many other VCs, come to our booth and commend our drink. The president of Tech even took a picture with us and posted us to his social media.
How has your business-related major helped you further this startup venture? I love business from the number-crunching to the psychology of it. The biggest way finance has helped me is with everything from calculating the benefits and costs of running our business to setting the price of our product and understanding the distribution cost. This knowledge was instrumental in making some of our most important decisions.
Which business class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? Legal Aspects of Business. The class helped because when you think of anything with ignorance of the subject, it seems incredibly insurmountable. The Legal Aspects of Business course helped to get rid of that ignorance veil and showed me how simple it is to run a busy. Simple, not easy, mind you.
What business professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? Charlotte Alexander, my legal aspects professor, made herself available to me within the course and outside of it with legal advice. I am incredibly grateful for her contributions, and she is a great professor.
What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? I have always wanted to start a business, but my ignorance on how to do so is what held me back. As a result, I was not inspired to do it – but rather motivated. The whole CREATE-X staff is amazing, but my biggest motivator had to be Rahul Saxena. He became like a family member to me, whether it was helping me not get caught up on miniscule issues, to giving wisdom on paths to go. I feel I could call him at any time in my journey and he would joyfully answer.
What is your long-term goal with your startup? My long-term goal would be to continue to innovate on the product, finding ways to make it even better than what it is now (no easy feat). I want to use the money from the company to continue to invest into more business ideas that will serve more people, and invest back into Georgia Tech. Every founder always has this thought: “Would I sell it off?” I would sell it If I feel that the buyer was going to serve my athletes to the highest capacity with no compromise of the brand integrity and the culture that made it successful in the first place. Anything short of that I would not…and the price must be right!
How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? The competitive nature and drive of everyone around me has been amazing and a breath of fresh air. We live in a culture, especially with school, that oftentimes does not reward or teach outside the box thinking. Being around so much of that mentality at once is an enriching experience.
Reprinted from the P&Q article "Most Disruptive Business School Startups of 2024."